Reunion
by RubyYuki
Summary: Ten years after the Mizaki school incident, you've finally integrated yourself as a functional member of society. Unfortunately, the pain is still there and on this anniversary the demons from your past haunt you... slowly propagating your self-pity... and driving you insane...


It's been ten years. You normally don't think about it in your day-to-day life as a twenty-six year old with a cushy desk job as an insurance broker. But every year, on the anniversary, you can't help but recall the terrible events that unfolded that night. The feeling of despair and desolation you felt on that day ruminates on your mind, becoming a thick toxic sludge that can only be expunged through self-inflicted wounds.

In this case, the heavy bassline of a dubstep song pulsates through your chest as you down a couple of kamikaze shots by the bar. Yep, forgetting this year will come in the form of getting shit-faced drunk. It's all easier to forget that way.

Honestly, you're more afraid of the music killing you first. The speakers are all the way on the other side of the underground club, past a sea of people shaking and squirming their bodies on the dancefloor as colorful strobe lights hide and illuminate the features of their faces in a split-second. Yet the boom and blast of the music is enough to make it feel like your heart is shaking inside your chest. On the other hand, the alcohol is so smooth and easy to swallow. It warms your throat and tingles your body the more you consume. There's no way that can be as poisonous as the deafening screeches and cymbal crashes blowing through the speakers right at this moment.

You hop on a bar stool in front of you and swing your legs around to the front, tapping the counter to let the bartender know you need some more shots. She nods in compliance, but first goes to serve a couple of other customers that arrived before you did.

You drum your fingers on the sleek white bar counter that pulsates with the beat and lights around you. A gentle tap on the right shoulder disrupts your finger rapping, and you turn to see a young girl, no older than sixteen, standing there. The lights only illuminate the half of her face that is turned towards you, but you know right off the bat who it is.

"Is this seat taken?" She asks, while simultaneously pulling out the chair next to you. As if your answer even mattered. "This is new." She keeps her head facing forward, only using her left eye to pierce your gaze. "I'm used to you sulking in your apartment." The bartender places two shot glasses in front of you, and you hold your finger up to tell her to wait. In a quick motion you down both shots back-to-back and signal to her for two more. "This isn't really my kind of place." She continues, her voice somehow reaching you clearly over the deafening music. "It's probably something Suou-san and Akari would have dragged me to though..." She lets out a small chuckle followed by a wistful sigh. After about twenty seconds of you averting her probing forest green eyes, she smooths her skirt, stands up, and faces you.

The half of her face that had been hidden is revealed in the blinking red lights around you. Her left side is completely normal, save for some splotches of red near the center of her forehead. But the right half is a stark contrast. Sparse patches of skin sit on the forehead; charred flesh cutting jagged black lines where her hairline used to be. Parts of her nose cartilage, jaw muscle, and cheekbone are exposed to the outside elements, the epidermis and deeper layers of the skin having been torched ten years ago. Pockets of red are scattered on her scalp, giving the appearance of small pools of blood that drown her dark hair follicles. As she opens her mouth to speak you can see through her inner cheek and thin violet veins and out the other side. "I'm sure we will see each other later." She gives you a disappointed glare, one that you were so used to back in those days, and vanishes into the crowd on the dance floor.

The bartender returns and you quickly gulp down the next two shots, leave her a tip, and squeeze your way out of the club. The metal stairs clang underneath your brown boots as you shove your way past everyone else, all people going into the club. You lower and brace yourself for the wintry cold as you step out onto the street. The bitter temperature smacks you in the face, numbing your nose, as you quickly shuffle your hands into your coat pockets. Snow is gently falling from the dark sky; the small flakes would otherwise be invisible if not for the streetlights illuminating their silent descent. Your feet crunch in the snow as you trudge along the city streets. The frigid wind occasionally strikes against your reddened cheeks, and blows piles of snow off rooftops above as they fall down and coat you in another layer of ice.

The bright lights of the arcade beam to your left. Pinball machines and video game consoles lay untouched, save for the two or three teens allowed out this late on a Thursday night by their parents. The flashing screens and 16-bit audio fill your senses with melancholic nostalgia as you shake your head and continue wandering. As you pass by the final shop window, out of the corner of your eye, you can't help but spot long silver hair poking out from in front of a scarlet red racing simulator seat. The snow crunches as you turn your feet and body towards the final shop window that peers into the edge of the arcade.

"She's here every night." A bright and bubbly voice says from next to you. There's no reflection in the glass, and having not heard any crunching footsteps approach clues you in on the voice's origin. You sigh and turn to the girl dressed in a big navy-blue puffer coat and red scarf by your side. Akari flashes one of her brilliant smiles at you, one that should have easily forced a cheeky grin in return, no matter your mood. At least back then it would have...

Akari pouts and a hint of jealousy fills her voice. "I know you always liked her a little more than the rest of us." She says to you, puffing out her cheeks in displeasure. "You should at least talk to her if you're not going to talk to the rest of us." Akari tugs at the collar of her scarf and slowly unwraps it from around her neck. You stand there in a trance, unable to look away. Especially since you know what is coming next. The remnants of dried blood coat her skin all the way down her neck before they disappear beneath the outline of her jacket. A large gash of dark crimson, maybe a half an inch deep, is centered on her neck. You stare into the void where her throat had been slit and feel the oxygen escape your own body.

Then you turn back to the arcade. Ricka stands in front of the racing simulator chair. Her visage rests in its usual calm and stoic state. She raises her hand to wave to you, the tail end of her ninja costume's azure cape following suit, somehow flapping and waving like a flag in the wind. But that's not what's accentuated. Your eyes well with tears as you stare at your Kamuy piercing Ricka through her heart. The tip of the sword juts out her back a full three inches as she does a three-sixty and pulls out her shurikens with a bloody smirk. Dark red liquid escapes from her mouth and runs down her chin as she stands still holding that pose.

You push through Akari and she evaporates into the air as you run through the snow. You slip, fall, and get up a few times as you rush to the train station. You just have to get home. You spot the train traveling towards the station above you while you sprint on the icy sidewalk below. The whining of the train's brakes locking against the rail fill the frigid air around you as you rush to the platform and squeeze through the doors just before they close. Wiping the frozen tears from your face, you sit down on a two-person bench inside the mostly empty car. Your breath shakes as you let out an exhale and work to dust the snow off your clothes.

Normalcy and warmth return to you after a few minutes of closing your eyes and listening intently to the rhythmic clickety-clack of the train wheels rolling over rail joints at unspecified intervals. You open your eyes and can spot luscious purple hair flowing down next to you. "Hope you don't mind that I sat here sweetie." Tengge says from next to you with her head slouched off to the side in an awkwardly unnatural contorted position. You strain to keep your focus away from her, but notice Enju, Akari, and Ricka all sitting in the train in the seats adjacent to you.

The train screeches to a halt and chimes echo throughout the car that the train has reached its terminus. You stride onto the platform with your head down, hood up, and hands in your pockets as you try to hurry your way home. A quartet of voices call out from behind you, but you keep trudging along.

After a mile or so of aimlessly plodding in the cold, you stare dumbfounded through the condemned and boarded gates of the Mizaki school. It's as if fate brought you here to confront everyone once and for all. And you can't help but stare through the fence at the abandoned property. The one you haven't been to in ten dreadful years.

Half of the dilapidated building is missing. Snow is piled up in mounds in front of the doors and fills the visible upper-floor hallways from the outside. Overgrown weeds poke out from underneath the blanket of snow on the property, and vines stretch against the cold, wrapping around the building in a thick green blanket. The fence on the rooftop has a large hole in it, and you can see the exact spot where you were standing when everything happened, as the second warehouse is completely collapsed in a pile of rubble... save for the one table that was in the room.

The squeaky chains of a swing-set in the distance draw your attention down the fence towards the playground. As you follow the property line you come up to the source of the sound. Myu is steadily pumping her legs back and forth as the swing rocks like a pendulum ten yards away. Her pink pigtails and bangs flap in the cold wind as she turns to you and waves, the corner of her lips pointing upward towards the dark night sky. "H-hi senpai!" She shouts across the courtyard to you. If it weren't for the tranquil darkness around you, you know that you'd be able to see the place she was deathly poisoned.

Your boot bangs against the rusted metal fence as you kick it with extreme force. Part of it breaks off, exposing a small hole for you to crawl through. A cloud of vapor leaves your nostrils and fills the air around you as you decide to venture in further. However, before you can crouch down, a bright, friendly, and confident voice calls out from behind you.

"I was worried you'd never show up. Especially after ten years."

She... she sounds familiar, not like the other girls you've seen today. You cautiously turn around and assume a defensive stance. Ten feet away are a pair of dark mauve eyes staring back at you from inside the shadows of the lone streetlamp on the block. A young woman, surely around your age, steps into the light and struts towards you calmly and confidently. As the falling flakes contrast the dark plum hair poking out from underneath her hood in the yellow streetlight, you remain awestruck, aptly frozen in the cold.

She dons a large black coat with a green sweater poking out from underneath her dark yellow scarf. She lowers her hood and examines you from a few steps away. "You've been seeing them too?" She asks, crossing her arms and absentmindedly tapping her foot as she thinks about something.

"You're not real." You sputter out in confusion. This- this can't be possible. Everyone had died ten years ago. You were the lone survivor. You-

***Slap***

"That real enough for you dolt?" She says with annoyance after smacking you in the cheek with a decent amount of force. Or maybe it just stings more because of the cold. "It's not every day that you get slapped by a pretty girl in the middle of the night." She scoffs and hangs her arms back her sides, waiting for your response.

You reach out to touch her shoulder and rest your hand on her soft wool coat. Your eyes go wide with astonishment as you leap into her and wrap your arms around her back, encapsulating Yamabuki in a tight hug. "I thought everyone was gone." You cry into her shoulder. She rubs your back, seemingly taking your sudden twist of emotions in stride.

"I thought so too." Bookie utters into your ear before calmly pulling away. "Until they told me that you were still alive." She wipes her eye with her mitten-covered hands and flashes you a grateful smile. "They also told me you never respond to them... why?" She asks in all seriousness.

It's a fair question to inquire about, but you don't really have an answer. "I'm too scared to." You sniffle, wiping your running nose with the sleeve of your jacket. "I let them down... and whenever I see them- I'm reminded of how gruesomely they all died. All because I was too blind to my surroundings." You feel yourself getting choked up on your words as your throat closes on you.

"They don't blame you. We all missed how dangerous he was." Yamabuki tells me plainly, as if she's mediating for them. "You need to clear the air so they can finally rest." She reaches for your hand and warms them with hers.

"But I blame me." You respond coldly with the truth. Your truth.

Yamabuki sidles up next to you. "If you really do, then at least apologize to them. Discuss it, and I guarantee that they won't harbor any bad feelings towards you." She grabs your hand and pulls you towards the hole in the gate you made. "I'll be right there with you." She says as she gives your fingers a gentle squeeze.

Debating for a few seconds, you finally nod and follow her through the hole. As you both approach the front door of the school, you can't help but chuckle to yourself.

"What's so funny?" Yamabuki asks with slight amusement of your sudden shift in mood.

You stop in her wake and wait for her to turn around. "Are you sure you're just not trying to get some ghosts dressed in cosplay?" Your chuckles turn into a full-blown laugh.

Yamabuki shakes her head with a scowl before turning it into a smirk at the sound of your laughter. "Well I wasn't thinking about doing that until now." She reaches back for your hand and you interlock fingers. "How do you think you look in a maid costume now?" She roars.

"Hey, I'll turn around and leave." You say with a snort as you both step through the threshold of the school building.

You know deep down, with your pushy but loyal friend Yamabuki by your side, you'll finally be able to lay everyone's soul to rest.


End file.
